Corticosteroids (or glucocorticoids) having anti-inflammatory properties are widely used for the treatment of inflammatory conditions or disorders of skin, airways, eye, GI tract, joints, CNS etc, and several autoimmune disorders. Some of the inflammatory skin disorders where treatment with glucocorticoids is prescribed are eczema, psoriasis, allergic dermatitis, pruritis, hypersensitivity reactions etc. Inflammatory or allergic conditions of the airways for which glucocorticoids are used include disorders of nose, throat or lungs such as rhinitis (including hay fever), nasal polyps, asthma (including allergen-induced asthmatic reaction), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, interstitial lung disease, fibrosis, etc. Glucocorticoid administration is also used for inflammatory bowel disorders such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn's diseases; and inflammatory joint disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis which are autoimmune diseases. However, administration of corticosteroids in general may cause, in addition to the desired pharmacological effect, several undesirable or adverse side effects at sites distant from the target tissue, the so-called systemic effects. The long term use of such corticosteroids is limited by the occurrence of serious undesired systemic effects including hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis suppression, widespread immunosuppression, delayed wound healing, increased bone turnover, impaired growth, muscle weakness or atrophy, peptic ulceration, skin thinning, diabetes, obesity, hypertension, water retention, progesterone and estrogen related disorders. It is therefore desirable to have glucocorticoids which possess potent anti-inflammatory activity at the target tissue, with minimal or preferably no systemic activity at therapeutic doses when used for chronic treatment.